School bids are pleasant surprise

Thursday

May 31, 2007 at 9:00 AM

By GEOFF CUNNINGHAM Jr. gcunningham@citizen.com

LACONIA - School and city officials breathed a big sigh of relief on Wednesday when they opened bids for the middle school project and found that three of five packages had come in under $20 million, which is the number they had been aiming at in developing the main portion of the school's construction budget.

"It was fantastic. We have been working on this thing for a couple of years and it was a great feeling to have a sense that we are going to be okay," said Superintendent Bob Champlin.

Champlin was among those who took part in a bid opening that saw three New Hampshire-based construction firms coming in under $20 million — a situation that school and city officials say will secure their ability to fund the original base design of the school and possibly add some desired "alternates" such as added lighting on the athletic fields and enhanced shelving and cabinetry in classrooms.

When bids on the project were opened on Wednesday it was Harvey Construction of Bedford that came out as the total low bidder for the 114,500-square-foot proposed school building with a number of $19,607,000.

The total bids cover the work on Opechee Park's fields, the building of the school and the possible addition of nine alternate "add-in" projects that were left out of the base design in the event that the project exceeded its budget.

The base numbers also include possible "deduct" alternatives that were included in the project, but were itemized and priced so that a construction firm could subtract them and keep the city under budget.

Two other companies came in with similar bids, with NorthBranch Construction of Henniker coming in only $41,000 over Harvey's bid and Eckman Construction of Bedford at $282,000 more.

P.J. Stella Construction and Lee Kennedy Co. — two Massachusetts-based firms — came in the highest with total bids of $20,502,000 and $21,212,000, respectively.

While Harvey Construction's number appears to put it in the lead position, it remains to be seen which firm will be awarded the job, as that decision will be made by the Joint Building Committee today at a meeting scheduled for 6:30 p.m. at the SAU Offices on Harvard Street.

Champlin noted that it will be up to that panel to decide what "add-in" alternates it wants to incorporate into the design of the school and which it might be willing to do without in the interest of saving money.

The superintendent noted that each company provided an itemized list for the add-in alternates so City Council and School Board members on the Joint Building Committee will need to choose a firm based on which has the lowest number when all of the selected design elements are added up.

"[Today] they will decided on the alternates and it won't be until they are chosen that we will know who is the low bid," explained Champlin.

While the committee still needs to review the bids, those opening them on Wednesday say they were more than a little pleased to see that the total bid numbers for three companies were under the $20 million they based the building's budget on.

"At under $20 million, we can do everything in the base design and consider adding some things," said Champlin who went on to say he hopes most of the alternate design elements will be funded.

The superintendent said he was pleased that all of the five bids for the Opechee Field revamping project came in under the $300,000 they had budgeted for that separate bid item.

Mayor Matt Lahey said Wednesday's bid opening validated his and others' belief that the city was going into a major project during a time when the construction market is favorable for communities looking to build.

"Maybe it was more hope than anything, but we were hearing that it was a good time for this type of project. We were hoping to get competitive bids and we certainly did," said Lahey.

Lahey said the favorable bids should ensure that nothing in the design of the project needs to be cut and that some options previously thought to be out of reach might be reinserted into the building.

"I suspect that several of the add alternates will be included, but that is going to be up to the full [committee]. I certainly think we are going to be able to do an excellent project," said Lahey.